THE DOMESDAY SURVEY the Hiding Ford was from which it took its appellation,' wrote Morant (ii. 249), 'I cannot learn.' Yet we have not to look further than the Hedinghams, lying in the very heart of the Hundred, for the origin of the name. The road by which they were united must have traversed the Colne by a ford, and as roads from the four quarters of the Hundred all met close to that ford, it would form an ideal spot for the Hundred's moot. Local politicians will remember the famous annual meetings of the Hinckford Hundred Conservatives at Castle Hedingham. The remaining Hundreds are those of Barstable, Thurstable and Freshwell. Of these the first derives its name from Barstable (Hall) in Basildon, a manor entered in Domesday, which is almost in the centre of the Hundred ; Thurstable was, no doubt, a place of which the name is now lost ; Freshwell derived, according to Morant, its name from a little stream which flows into the Pant between Radwinter and Great Sandford, and which rises in about the centre of the Hundred. In Domesday, Maldon and ' Thunreslau ' are entered as ' Half Hundreds, Clavering, Freshwell, Harlow, Waltham and Witham sometimes as Hundreds and sometimes as * Half Hundreds, but the two first more frequently as the latter, and the three others more frequently as Hun- dreds. This looseness of expression may prepare us for the fact that Winstree is subsequently styled a ' Half Hundred in charters, and that on the Hundred Rolls Clavering, Freshwell, Harlow, Thurstable, Winstree and Waltham occur as ' Half Hundreds, while Uttlesford, as was occasionally the case, is divided into the Hundreds of ' Estho- delesford' and ' Westhodelesford.' On a roll of 1303 Thurstable, Harlow and Clavering are ' Half Hundreds. 1 It will have been seen from the foregoing how loose was the classification. Apart from the names, the boundaries of the Hundreds are suggestive of their late formation. The three Thurrocks, in the south of the county, are divided between the Hundreds of ChafFord and Barstable ; the two Bumpsteads, in its north, between Freshwell and Hinckford ; the Rodings are partly in Dunmow Hundred and partly in that of Ongar ; the parishes of Henham and of Stansted Mountfichet are divided between the Hundreds of Clavering and Uttlesford. 1 Other parishes similarly divided by Hundredal boundaries are North Weald Bassett, Epping, Reydon, High Ongar, Great Leighs, Danbury, Little Baddow and Thundersley. In all such cases it may be concluded that the boundary of the parish, or of the group of parishes bearing the same name, is older than that of the Hundred. In Clavering we seem to have a Hundred taken out of Uttlesford for the benefit of Suain of Essex, who appears to have been its lord. 3 In at least two remarkable instances original settlements are cut 1 Feudal Aids, pp. 1*9 et seq. Tendring, conversely, is styled 'two Hundreds' in Stephen's charter of disaffbresution.
- It should, however, be observed that Pledgdon in Henham and Bendfield in Stansted, which are
the portions in Clavering Hundred, are distinct hamlets a nd were separately entered, by their names, in Domesday. 8 See p. 345 ; and p. 487 below for his rights in that of Rochford, the other centre of his power. 407
